Tigers Bring Home the Bacon

The Melbourne Tigers have issued a word of warning to the rest of the NBL with a 106-77 hammering of the injury riddled West Sydney Razorbacks tonight in their Philips Championship clash at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.

After suffering a 26 point hammering against Melbourne at the same venue just 10 days ago the Razorbacks fared even worse this evening recording their biggest loss in franchise history at the hands of the high flying Tigers.

Melbourne once again dominated the frontcourt, but the most impressive facet of their game tonight was their transition offence, which had the ailing Razorbacks on the back foot all night long.

Veteran Darryl McDonald was the main instigator in the Tigers up tempo style scoring 14 points and dishing out nine assists, but after the game when talking to Fox Sports he indicated that there was still plenty of improvement to be made before Melbourne was at full capacity.

“I think we are getting there, it’s going to take a while. We are trying to get as many wins on board as possible so we can get that first or second spot. That’s our main goal right now.”

Tigers import Dave Thomas was on the receiving end of most of D-Mac’s good work scoring a game high 20 points (9/14FG), while Rashad Tucker and Daryl Corletto were not too far behind him with 18 points a piece.

Corletto was extremely pleased with his effort when talking to Fox Sports Steve Carfino telling him it was good to be back knocking down long bombs again (4/8 3pt).

“It helps if your first couple of shots go down. I’ve been lacking a bit of confidence from behind the three point line so it is good to hit a few.”

With leading scored James Harvey out of the lineup with a dislocated shoulder captain Scott McGregor did his best to pick up the slack leading West Sydney in both points (17) and rebounds (12).

Import Joel Cornette scrapped hard after a terrible start to the game landing a double double (13 points and 12 rebounds), while his fellow American Jermaine Blackburn also scored 13 points courtesy of some accurate long range shooting (3/4 3pt).

Things looked promising for the Razorbacks in the opening couple of minutes as they took an early 4-2 lead, but from that point on in the quarter it was a complete annihilation with the Tigers getting plenty of easy transition baskets that saw them rack up their highest scoring quarter of the season to take a well deserved 13 point lead into the first break (33-20).

It got no better for West Sydney in the second period with McDonald continuing to turn the screws, hitting two three pointers late in the term to send the Tigers into half time ahead 58-37.

A half time rev up from coach Mark Watkins saw the Razorbacks emerge a different team in the early stages of the third quarter and midway through the period they had cut the deficit to 12 points (70-58) courtesy of some inspired play from Clint Reed and Rhys Carter.

A quick timeout from Melbourne coach Al Westover seemed to get the Tigers minds back on the job and over the final few minutes of the period they blitzed the Pigs with a 14-2 run to go into the final break with a comfortable 24 point lead (84-60).

With the result beyond doubt the last quarter turned into little more than garbage time as both sides emptied their benches to give their lesser lights some precious NBL minutes.

Melbourne’s (8-4) next game will be played on Sunday night against the in form Hunter Pirates, while West Sydney (3-7) now face the daunting task of playing the red hot Sydney Kings on Saturday night at the Kingdome.

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